Taipei: It’s clear that not every shuttler is adopting to the new 11×5 scoring format well. At the ongoing Chinese Taipei Masters that kicked off the opening round on Wednesday, we saw some shuttlers were striving while some were struggling under that experimental 11-point format.
Malaysia’s veteran shuttler Daren Liew staged a sensational escape act on Wednesday as the former Malaysia national team player overcame a sluggish opener to beat Lee Chia Hao of Taiwan 1-11, 11-6, 10-12, 12-10 and 11-9 in 51 minutes.
Later that day, Liew had another tough fight against sixth seeded Firman Abdul Kholik of Indonesia before Liew prevailed with 11-6, 4-11, 11-7, 8-11 and 11-6. Liew is set to take on Adulrach Namkul of Thailand next.
Another Malaysian independent shuttler Tan Chun Seang also cruised past two opponents to make it to the third round. Tan will play local shuttler Shih Kuei Chun of Taiwan on Wednesday.
In women’s competition, 20-year-old Ho Yen Mei seemed to get a good grip of the new format when she shocked No. 7 seed Fitriani Fitriani of Indonesia 11-9, 15-13, 6-11, 11-6 to reach the second round. However, the 16-year-old World junior champion and No. 4 seed Goh Jin Wei was uncharacteristically gloomy in her opening match against Saena Kawakami of Japan, going down 7-11, 8-11, 4-11 in just 26 minutes.
The Chinese Taipei Masters is the 16th grand prix’s badminton tournament of the 2016 Badminton World Federation Grand Prix Gold and Grand Prix event. It offers a total prize money of US$ 55,000 (RM230,544).
